s, it's usual practice, and a
stranger must look out. I don't mind the parson; if he wins, he may
have, and welcome. But a relation! To think that my own blood cousin
wants money out of me!"

"A Newmarket man would get the better of his father. My brother has
been on the turf since he rode over to it from Cambridge. If you play at
cards with him--and he will if you will let him--he will beat you if he
can."

"Well, I'm ready!" cries Harry. "I'll play any game with him that I
know, or I'll jump with him, or I'll ride with him, or I'll row with
him, or I'll wrestle with him, or I'll shoot with him--there--now."

The senior was greatly entertained, and held out his hand to the boy.
"Anything, but don't fight with him," said my lord.

"If I do, I'll whip him! hanged if I don't!" cried the lad. But a look
of surprise and displeasure on the nobleman's part recalled him to
better sentiments. "A hundred pardons, my lord!" he said, blushing very
red, and seizing his cousin's hand. "I talked of ill manners, being
angry and hurt just now; but 'tis doubly ill-mannered of me to show my
anger, and boast about my prowess to my own host and kinsman. It's not
the practice with us Americans to boast, believe me, it's not."

"You are the first I ever met," says my lord, with a smile, "and I take
you at your word. And I give you fair warning about the cards, and the
betting, that is all, my boy."

"Leave a Virginian alone! We are a match for most men, we are," resumed
the boy.

Lord Castlewood did not laugh. His eyebrows only arched for a moment,
and his grey eyes turned towards the ground. "So you can bet fifty
guineas, and afford to lose them? So much the better for you, cousin.
Those great Virginian estates yield a great revenue, do they?"

"More than sufficient for all of us--for ten times as many as we are
now," replied Harry. ("What, he is pumping me," thought the lad.)

"And your mother makes her son and heir a handsome allowance?"

"As much as ever I choose to draw, my lord!" cried Harry.

"Peste! I wish I had such a mother!" cried my lord. "But I have only the
advantage of a stepmother, and she draws me. There is the dinner-bell.
Shall we go into the eating-room?" And taking his young friend's arm, my
lord led him to the apartment where that meal was waiting.

Parson Sampson formed the delight of the entertainment, and amused the
ladies with a hundred agreeable stories. Besides being chaplain to his
lordship, he was